1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to footwear for use in ice and snow conditions and, more particularly, to footwear with integral and selectively deployable crampons.
2. Description of the Background
Safety experts agree that many injuries result from falls on ice covered surfaces. Medical evidence shows that in Ontario, Canada 11,919 people had to go to the emergency room in the winter of year 2002-2003 because of injuries related to falls on ice. Of these visits 17% of them had to stay one night in the hospital. Most people who had to stay overnight were aged 60 to 79. On average a person over 80 years of age must stay in the hospital 14.5 days after a fall on the ice. Currently to walk or hike in varying winter conditions one needs a quality boot plus a spike or crampon attachment for safely traversing ice conditions, and/or a snowshoe to reduce human fatigue in snow by reducing the footprint depth.
Crampons are spikes that are strapped on to the bottom of mountaineering boots for traction on snow and ice. They have points protruding downwards about an inch in length. There are several types of conventional crampons. Strap-on crampons, use a combination of toe and heel caps to secure the crampon on the boot. Pneumatic crampons have a toe cap (usually made of plastic) and a lever that fits into a heel welt to ensure a tight fit. U.S. Pat. No. 6,964,118 describes crampons that are placed on the sole of a boot to provide extra grip on ice and steep slopes.
Snowshoes typically include a strap-on binding similar to the foregoing crampons.
In both cases the crampons and snowshoes are not easy to apply and not always convenient. The current inventor finds them inconvenient, time consuming, and expensive. It would be greatly advantageous to provide footwear with expanded soles and integral selectively-deployable crampons to avoid the foregoing problems.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,813,847 shows a boot with replaceable soles. Each sole is designed to grip better on different surfaces.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,809,668 shows a composite snowshoe to make walking in the snow easier and less tiring. This snowshoe includes a crampon on the bottom to provide extra grip.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,525,939 shows a boot with a non-slipping attachment. Both the toe and heel parts of the boot have the non-slip attachment.
Application No. 20020078598 shows cleats that have multilevel gripping spikes.
The shortcomings of the foregoing and all other known prior art include: inconvenience, time consumption, and expense. For safe traversing on ice, a gripping sole attachment should be used. However one must first attach this to the boot. For snow, the grip attachment must be removed and a snowshoe should be utilized. This is also inconvenient since the ice attachment needs to be removed and the snowshoe added. Furthermore, one must purchase three items (boot, grip attachment, snowshoe) to safely traverse in outdoor winter conditions. This can be expensive.
It would be greatly advantageous to provide a boot with integral snowshow sole and crampons combined in one final, convenient product that not only provides convenience, but safety as well.